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Chetna Gala Sinha
Chetna Gala Sinha is an activist, farmer, and banker. In the early 1980s, while still a student in Mumbai, she joined the Jayaprakash Narayan movement and travelled through the country championing land rights and other social issues. In 1996, Chetna founded the Mann Deshi Foundation in Mhaswad, a drought-stricken area of Maharashtra, with the aim of economically and socially empowering rural women. In 1997, she set up the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank – Indiaâs first bank for and by rural women. Today, the Mann Deshi Bank has over 100,000 account holders, has loaned over $50 million, and regularly creates new financial products to support the needs of female micro-entrepreneurs….
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Tuokanjo Sem Shikongo
Taukondjo Sem Shikongo is currently the Senior Programme Management Officer for the Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) Unit, which is mandated to serve the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on ABS at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Unit has as its mission to provide support to Parties, in their policy development, coordination, implementation and review of issues related to access and benefit-sharing under the Convention and its Nagoya Protocol, in an integrated, mainstreamed and efficient manner and to arrange for and service the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol. Prior to this Taukondjo served as Director for Tourism…
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Rita Sciarra
Rita Sciarra is an expert in international development and serves as Team Lead for inclusive Growth and Poverty Reduction for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Hub in Panama. She previously served as Strategic Advisor with the UNDP in Mexico supporting the country during its economic recovery process after the earthquake in 2018. Originally from Italy, she is fluent in four languages, with more than 14 years of experience in three different continents, in post-conflict and normal development conditions. Prior to this, Rita served as Head of Poverty Reduction with UNDP in Haiti. She has managed a portfolio of projects to ensure the transition from emergency to development, with a…
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Henrique F. Salas-Römer
Henrique F. Salas-Römer is President of Proyecto Venezuela, one of the political parties that make up the Mesa de la Unidad DemocrĂĄtica, a coalition of opposition parties in Venezuela. Henrique is also Assistant Chairman of the International Democratic Union, a working association of over 80 Conservative, Christian Democrat, and other parties of the center and center-right from over 60 countries. Elected to the National Congress at age 32, Henrique served for two years before being elected Governor of Carabobo, the third largest state in Venezuela. He was elected to four terms as Governor of Carabobo, serving from 1995 to 2004 and from 2008 to 2012. As Governor, Henrique worked to create a…
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Joshin Raghubar
Joshin Raghubar is technology and impact venture entrepreneur. He is the founder of iKineo Ventures, a venture builder and investment firm, through which is he currently growing Explore Sideways, a leading immersive travel(tech) company; Adbot, a machine-learning powered B2B SaaS platform that automates online search advertising for SMEs; and Inves Capital, a group of digital asset and cryptocurrency businesses building the future of money. He is also the Africa partner for Webrock Ventures, a LATAM/ Swedish venture builder and investment firm, through which he is a co-founder of Kena Health, a health-tech venture which aims to be Africaâs leading low-cost primary healthcare provider. His former ventures include iKineo (marketing), Strive,…
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Miguel Pulido Jiménez
Miguel Pulido JimĂ©nez is an attorney that focuses on citizen security, politics and law, and government accountability and transparency. He is Founder and Director of CREATURA, an international consultancy organization focused on social change through political and legal sectors. Miguel is formerly Executive Director of Fundar, Center for Analysis and Research, one of Mexicoâs largest and leading human rights NGOs. He has been a member of the Citizen Council to Prevent Discrimination in Mexico and served on the board of the conservation organization Reforestamos Mexico. He has authored three books on human rights and citizenship, writes for Aristegui Noticias, the most visited website in Mexico, and has taught a course…
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'Dapo Oyewole
âDapo Oyewole is Special Adviser on Development Planning & International Affairs to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He previously served as Special Adviser to the Minister of State for Finance in Nigeria, responsible for policy and international cooperation. Earlier, he served as Technical Adviser to two Ministers of National Planning (NPC) in the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The NPC is the countryâs central think tank on strategic development and policy planning and serves a central advisory role to the President. At the NPC, his responsibilities spanned international cooperation, donor coordination, national development strategy, policy formulation, performance monitoring, and…
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Akisa Omulepu
Akisa Omulepu is an Emmy-nominated documentarian, director, and producer. She is the founder of Emerge Omnimedia. Emergeâs mission is to create and tell stories that explore, investigate, and celebrate the experiences of people from the African Diaspora. Most recently she directed and produced a documentary short for PBS. 'A Dream Deferred, The Broken Promise of New York City Public Housing' was nominated for two Emmys. Her documentary short, âCrowned,â debuted and had a limited engagement at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City. The film explores the lives of three young African-American women navigating their way from high school to college. A native New Yorker to Panamanian and Kenyan…
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Henry Njoroge
Henry Njoroge works to expand Kenyaâs information technology sector. He currently runs Xtranet Communications which aims to capture the growing opportunities arising out of the rapid growth of mobile telephony and fiber optic cable technology on the East African Coast. He hopes to provide employment to hundreds of jobless youth in Kenya through initiatives including call centers, outsourcing and business process engineering. He is also Chairman of the Kenya Youth Business Trust, a non-profit organization affiliated to Youth Business International, whose aim is to empower the poorest of the poor through entrepreneurship by giving microloans. Henry was previously CEO of UUNET and Openview Business Systems, and he has established and…
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Omar Mohammed
Omar Mohammed is a historian from Mosul, Iraq known until recently only as the anonymous blogger âMosul Eyeâ. Through Mosul Eye, Omar set out to inform the world about life under the Islamic State in his city. His focus has now shifted to advocacy of social initiatives for the people of Mosul including the international effort to re-supply Central Library of the University of Mosul. At the intersection of media, academia and civil society, Omar is motivated to develop new networks of collaboration and innovations in humanitarian action. As a historian and lecturer at the University of Mosul, he focuses his scholarly work on conceptual history and research dealing with…
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